Making A Difference
by Dante de Troy
Summary: A young man who idolizes heros has to make a choice when he finds himself in a daunting position. (Chapter 2 is up!)
1. A Normal Man's Lament

Making a Difference  
  
By Joshua "Dante" Epstein  
  
Chapter I: A Normal Man's Lament  
  
A dull light streamed through a broad, open window. In the distance, the Hollywood sign was visible through a slight haze. Against one wall sat a cluttered desk with papers and magazines scattered about. A young man sat at the desk, tapping away at the keyboard of a laptop.  
  
"I look at their pictures on my wall while I sit in my desk. So colorful and brazen. They're all there, all that I could fit on my tiny little dormitory room wall. Even the weird ones who we don't know. They show up every now and then, but no one seems to know why. Heros. I even have a few villains up there too. You know, because "a man is judged by the quality of his enemies". Too bad everyone likes me. That's my problem, you see. I'm normal. I look out the window some times and I can see them. I've got a great view from my room, and my old room had a pretty good view too. I remember seeing Wonder Man and the others when I was younger. Wonder Man, that's who started it. He was on TV all the time, and back then all I wanted to do was be an actor, but seeing him changed that. I'll never forget the time that I saw him for the first time in real life. It was the time that he fought some big metal guy… he was so amazing. He was huge, strong, and he was trying so hard to make sure that no one got hurt. That's when I got hooked. My parents thought it was just a phase, but I never grew out of it. I've taped every news story that came on TV about super heroes. I clipped every newspaper article. Since I was seven, my walls have been covered with pictures of Spider-man, the Avengers, even the Hulk…"  
  
"The thing is this… well, my shrink tells me anyway, that this is a symptom of a serious inferiority complex. See, I want to make a difference. Ever since I saw Wonder Man, I knew that I wanted to be able to change the world, I wanted to be able to do something for people… but I'm just a normal guy. In every way but this, I'm normal. I'm not fast, I'm not strong, I'm average. I can't be a guy like Tony Stark, who makes a hero with his own hands; I'm not smart enough. I'm doomed to look out my window and watch their colorful forms fly by, knowing that's all I'll ever do: watch."  
  
He saved and shut the laptop, then leaned back in the chair, staring out the window to his right. In the far distance he can see the bright colored flashes of superhuman battle. He looked over at the pictures on the wall and mentally added checkmarks to two of them. It was Iron Man and, unless he missed his guess, Abomination. He had to look up the name before he could place the flashes and the suit he caught a glimpse of with binoculars. Strange. Abomination usually fought the Hulk, but he'd also been the villain that Wonder Man had fought the first time the young man had seen him. Sighing, he put down the binoculars and dropped onto his bed. He looked above him at the poster of Captain America. Cap had been a normal guy, just like him.  
  
"Some guys get all the breaks."  
  
He closed the blinds on the battle over the hills and let himself drift off into dreams of the power to make a difference… 


	2. Potential

Making a Difference  
  
By Joshua "Dante" Epstein  
  
Chapter II: Potential

"In summation, early man had a number of advantages over modern man. Despite his vastly inferior intellect, his average physical abilities were on par with only the most extraordinary athlete of today. Modern man has become grossly maladaptive on the physical level, relying instead on intellect to see him through his problems. While this has definitely led to improvement in quality of life from the stone age, it is an interesting question to leave you with; what might man have been had he not gone down his current path? Think it over. That's all for today."

Students quickly packed up their books and shuffled out of the classroom, except for him. He sat, quickly scribbling a last few notes

"Mr. Quinn?" Ethan did not look up. "**Mr. Quinn**." This time, at Professor Hale's brusque tone, Ethan did look up. 

"Sorry, professor, I was just trying to get some things down before I went home."

"Mr. Quinn, I've been meaning to speak with you. You've been falling horribly behind here. I know that your scores in your high school classes showed that you'd be one of our finest students. I've been keeping an eye on you, hoping that you would demonstrate some of the potential that your test scores indicate, but I've yet to see it."

"I'm sorry, sir... I've just been... distracted."

"I see. Come with me, Evan."

The old man walked slightly ahead of his pupil, talking the whole time.

"The lecture today put me in mind of this, Evan. It's all about potential, realized and wasted potential. You have a tremendous amount of unrealized potential to excel in this class, and in this field." They stepped into the professor's lab. "Here, I deal with potential, Evan. I believe that man is not one tenth of what he has the capability to be. I believe that the vaunted evolutionary process has cheated mankind out of a remarkable destiny, which is why he is being supplanted by corruptions of his genome. The mutants, the super humans, hah! They're all offshoots of what evolution is recognizing as a dead end. I believe that it can be otherwise."

The building trembled slightly, and Ethan could see it in the vibrations of the tubes and beakers around the lab.

"Only a tremor. You see, I believe that pure man, at his best, would have been more than any of these genfreaks can possibly imagine. That, my boy is why psychopaths like Lenshaar fear mankind. Not because they fear their extinction at the hands of the pathetic excuse of a species that dominates the earth today, but because he sees that true man would surpass even him!"

The old man was almost feverish, now.

"You've got to see it, boy. The possibilities!"

The building shook mightily and sent them both crashing to the floor. All around them beakers came crashing to the floor, and dishes flew off the shelves, one cracking into Ethan's head and sending him sprawling to the floor. That was the last thing he remembered.


End file.
